After two years of venturing to Philadelphia for the opening round of the PIAA Class AAA playoffs, the Golden Panthers got a different venue this season. They traveled north Friday afternoon to face off against Bethlehem Catholic at Bethlehem Freedom High School — a 55-mile one-way trek, which took the team bus about 1˝ hours to make.

But it’s a safe bet the players, coaches and faithful fans didn’t bemoan the extensive travel time for PJP’s latest state opener. Not after the Panthers came home with a 59-56 victory over the Golden Hawks that was the program’s first ever at the state level.

“The last couple years, we didn’t get it done,” head coach Jack Flanagan said afterward. In its two previous visits to South Philadelphia High School, PJP saw its season ended by losses to Philadelphia Electrical (62-56) and Boys Latin (70-49).

The third go-round proved to be the charm, even if it didn’t appear that way in the course of the game. BeCaHi took a 13-11 lead into the second quarter; and after PJP rebounded for a slight 24-23 advantage at the half, the Hawks effected a reversal that had them up 43-38 after three.

The deficit fluctuated between four and seven points halfway through the fourth, giving pause to the possibility the Golden Panthers would be oh-for-three in their brief history of state-playoff competition. But they got a decided boost down the stretch from Nick Demeno and Jamel Stinson, with Brent Mahoney and Tim Tadros also getting into the act.

“Me, Mel (Stinson), Brent and Alex (Plate) all stepped up,” Demeno, who contributed eight points to PJP’s winning rally, said. “We have a lot of leaders here, and they all stepped up.”

The frenzied last four minutes started with Demeno popping his second “three” at the 3:37 mark, and Tadros hitting a bucket less than a minute later for a 48-47 PJP lead. Freddie Simmons Jr., BeCaHi’s leading scorer with 20 points, answered at the 1:32 mark to give the Hawks the lead back, but it lasted only 12 seconds as Stinson hit for a basket and Demeno made both ends of a one-and-one to make it a 52-49 game.

The teams exchanged two scoring trips down the floor, leaving PJP up 56-54 after Simmons Jr. nailed a 3. But the Panthers went a combined 3-for-4 on two Stinson trips to the line in the final 16 seconds, wrapped around a crucial Hawk turnover at the 10-second mark. A last-second putback by Darwin Saint-Cyr was the final response by BeCaHi, which closed out a 13-12 campaign that saw it finish second in the District 11-AAA playoffs.

PJP, in the meantime, validated the mantra of “Whatever gets us to Tuesday,” the response Demeno gave to Flanagan after being advised teammate James Bleming would be in the starting lineup instead of him.

“That was pretty much our motto coming in,” Stinson said. “We wanted to get to Tuesday.”

NEXT UPPope John Paul II’s run in the PIAA Class AAA playoffs continues Tuesday against a team that, like it, had to call on a late-game surge to get through Friday’s opening round.

Archbishop Carroll came into states off a fourth-place finish in the Philadelphia Catholic League, then a similar run in the District 12-AAA tourney. In their game at Garden Spot High School, the Radnor-based Patriots overcame deep foul trouble by their two big men — sophomores Derrick Jones (6-6) and Ernest Aflakpui (6-9) were whistled for their fourth infractions in the final minute of the third quarter — to record a 47-42 win over Berks Catholic.

Nick Jones scored 12 points to lead a youngish Carroll roster that lists only three seniors on the 10-man varsity. Derrick Jones and Yosef Yacob each chipped in with 11, and Aflakpui with seven, as the Pats (20-6) made a 35-27 third-quarter lead hold up through the final frame.

PJP and Archbishop Carroll will face off Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School.

END OF THE ROADOne of the longest runs in the history of the Methacton boys program ended Saturday in the first round of states.

The Warriors came out on the short end of a 67-63 score with William Penn (York) in their PIAA Class AAAA contest at Dallastown High School. The loss closed out a 23-7 campaign for the locals — one highlighted by a 12-game win streak during the regular season, a runner-up finish in the Pioneer Athletic Conference’s Final Four playoffs, and a first-time state tournament qualification as the seventh seed from District 1.

Brendan Casper closed out his stellar hoop career with a 15-point outing against the Bearcats. That put the Warrior senior’s three-year total at 1,152 points, good for 44th place on The Mercury’s all-time scoring chart.